Introduction

Adopt South West started operations on 1 October 2018. It is the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) that undertakes adoption functions on behalf of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (since 1 April 2024), Devon, Plymouth, Somerset, and Torbay local authorities. The RAA is hosted by Devon County Council.

Adopt South West is one of 33 RAAs across the country, with the leaders from each RAA working together on the national adoption agenda.

An Inter Authority Agreement between the local authorities and Regional Adoption Agency sets out the terms and conditions for the establishment and operation of Adopt South West including:

• the key objectives of Adopt South West
• the principles of collaboration
• the governance structures for Adopt South West, and
• the respective roles and responsibilities the parties have during the currency of the agreement.

The provision of an adoption service is a statutory requirement. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 provides the structure for an adoption service. Under the Adoption Act 2002 s3, each council must maintain within its area an adoption service designed to meet the needs of children who may be adopted, their parents, their natural parents and former guardians. These services are referred to as the Adoption Service (Adoption and Children Act 2002 s2 (1)). An adoption agency refers either to a local authority or to a registered adoption society under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 s2 (1).

While each local authority retains overall responsibility for their adoption services and continues to retain overall responsibility for their cared-for children, most adoption functions are delegated to Adopt South West. The detail of this is outlined in our Statement of Purpose.

• Adopt South West has responsibility for recruiting, assessing and supporting prospective adopters, for non-agency adoption work including partner adoptions, and for intercountry adoptions.
• Adopt South West is responsible for family finding for all children with adoption plans in the Adopt South West region.
• Adopt South West provides support to all parties affected by adoption, including adopters, adoptees, adoptive families, adopted adults and birth relatives.

It is important to note that the data and information within this report is accurate as of 31 March 2025. Plans for children are dynamic and develop every day and the picture will have changed at the point this is read. Our task has been to place children promptly in adoptive families that have been robustly assessed and are well-prepared for the challenges of adoption. We support children and their families throughout their childhood and adolescence.

Working with Local Authority partners

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly integration with Adopt South West

On 1 April 2025, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly formally joined Adopt South West, marking a significant step in regional collaboration for adoption services. This inaugural year has focused on aligning practice across the partnership, ensuring that the needs of Cornish children, young people, and families are met consistently and effectively alongside those in our other four Local Authority areas.

For the Isles of Scilly, a Service Level Agreement has been established to govern the provision of adoption services, ensuring tailored support and clear accountability.

Ofsted Inspection – Cornwall (1 to 5 July 2024)

Cornwall’s adoption services underwent an Ofsted inspection prior to the formal transition. The inspection report highlighted:

• The move to Adopt South West was carefully planned, minimizing disruption for children and adopters.
• Shared expertise across the region has led to greater availability of adopters for Cornwall’s children.
• There is effective oversight by Cornwall Council, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities within the regional agency.
• Children are benefiting from the use of early permanence arrangements, supporting stability and long-term outcomes.

Working together

Collaboration remains central to our regional approach. Lead managers for adoption from each local authority meet quarterly with Adopt South West Operations Managers to review and develop regional processes and practice. Our Quality Assurance Managers play a key role in this work, offering consultation, oversight, and expert advice through their agency advisor and adoption panel advisor roles. In addition, Adopt South West delivers targeted practice learning and training across specific areas of adoption work, supporting colleagues in local authorities to strengthen and enhance their adoption practice.

Adopt South West works closely with the five local authority partners, with established working relationships with our local authority colleagues. There are processes in place for Adopt South West to support our local authority colleagues in progressing children’s plans where adoption is the permanence plan. Team Managers across Adopt South West attend specific local authority meetings, including tracking, permanence and legal planning meetings, to achieve best outcomes for children and young people who have a plan of adoption. When supporting families post adoption order we have established working relationships across our partner agencies to enable access to the right support to meet their needs.

Governance and scrutiny of Adopt South West

The Operational Board meet as regularly as is necessary to perform its role, but in any event no less than every six weeks. The Board membership is made up of the delegated Service Director or Divisional Director from each of the five partner local authorities, the appointed Independent Chair (non-voting) and Adopt South West Head of Service (non-voting).

The Strategic Partnership Board meet as regularly as is necessary to perform its role, but in any event no less than every six months. The core membership of the board are the Director of Children’s Services and the lead member for each of the five partner local authorities, the Independent Chair of the Operational Board (non-voting) and Adopt South West Head of Service (non-voting).

In the 2024 to 2025 year we have worked together to:

• Formalise the three-year Strategic Plan for Adopt South West.
• Finalise the review and amendments to the Inter Authority Agreement with Cornwall (Isles of Scilly) joining us.
• Re-establish a Regional Scrutiny group.
• Establish a regional peer review model – an audit-based model against National Standards with analysis of process and practice in order to inform, promote and shape effective regional practice to ensure best outcomes for children, young people, families and adopted adults.
• Agree to the recruitment of a board member with lived experience of adoption.

In the 2025 to 2026 year work continues to:

• Devise regional best practice policy and guide for access to records and our work with adult adoptees in order to achieve a consistent approach.
• Consider changes to funding for therapeutic interventions, ASGSF, reviewing the provision of adoption support within Adopt South West to best meet regional children, young people, families and adopted adults needs.
• Formalise regional standard approach to financial support for prospective adopters in transitions, early placement and allowance.

Voice and Influence

Achieve a culture where the voice of children, young people, adopted adults, adoptive and birth families will influence how we deliver our adoption service.

Outcome in Adopt South West Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027

Elevating the voices of adopted young people

We remain committed to creating meaningful opportunities for adopted young people to come together and share their experiences. Our goal is to offer consistent support across all five local authorities. However, we acknowledge that some of our youth-focused groups have not gained the momentum we had hoped for. We recognise that we are not yet fully meeting the needs of young people, and we want to change that.

At the end of October 2024, Hannah Clay, Adoption Support Operations Manager, travelled to Leeds to be a part of the first ever Adoption England Youth Voice and Influence Conference.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to explore the work and journeys of several regional and voluntary adoption agencies being led by the voice of the children and young people we seek to serve. Most importantly, the conference was not just for professionals, but young people with experience of being adopted and was led and guided by what they had wanted to focus on. With the young people delivering several presentations and workshops.”

Hannah Clay, Adoption Support Operations Manager

We are actively seeking input from adopted young people to help us understand what they want, what matters to them, and how we can better support their journey. Their voices are essential in shaping the future of our services.

Our long-term aim is to be guided by the children and young people we work with, ensuring they have a clear and influential voice within our community and service development. While this is a journey, we are fully committed to making it happen.

We are inviting adopted young people to share their views or get involved in shaping our services by emailing us at adoptsouthwestsupport@devon.gov.uk. We will arrange a conversation in a way that suits them best: whether that’s online, in person, or by phone.

Listening to the voices of adopters, adopted adults and birth families

Just as vital as the voices of young people are the insights and feedback from adopters, adopted adults, and birth families. Their lived experience continues to shape our understanding and delivery of adoption support.

In 2025, we began exploring the introduction of a new role on our Strategic board: a Participation Lead with lived experience of adoption. This role is designed to strengthen the connection between our governance and the communities we serve.

We aim to appoint this board member in Autumn 2025, with the intention they will:

• Represent the perspectives of those with lived adoption experience
• Support active engagement with those with lived experience of adoption across the Adopt South West region to inform and influence service development and delivery.

This marks an important step in our journey to embed lived experience at the heart of our decision-making and ensure our services reflect the real needs of those living in our Adopt South West region.

The children

All children requiring permanence through adoption are placed in a timely way, maintaining focus on prioritising Early Permanence to achieve moving into their permanent family at the earliest possible stage; children remain in their adoptive families within or close to the Adopt South West region.

Outcome in Adopt South West Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027

This year, 185 children across our region have had plans for adoption agreed. This is a reduction of 6% (11 children) compared to the 2023 to 2024 year. This decrease is slightly higher than the national data which shows a 3% reduction in the number of children who had a Should Be Placed decision (Coram-i-ASG 24/25 data). We had anticipated an increase in numbers when Cornwall joined us but this was offset by changes across the region.

• Placement orders were granted regionally for 171 children, a 36% increase on last year.
• This year 132 children were placed for adoption, an increase of 17%.
• There was an increase of 20% in adoption orders.

These increases reflect the higher number of child plans for adoption from the previous year, and from an increase in children as Cornwall joined the RAA.

We continue to work hard to place children from the Adopt South West region with approved Adopt South West adopters. This approach helps support the child’s regional identity and continuity of adoption support within the Adopt South West region.

This will be a third successful year of this approach: of the 132 children placed in the 2024 to 2025 year, 90% were placed with adopters approved by Adopt South West.

Of the 132 children placed,14 were part of a sibling group of two, including siblings aged 8 and 9 years, and 6 and 7 years. The number also included two sets of twins.

34 children placed were 4 years and over, of which 24 were placed with Adopt South West adopters. Our oldest child placed was 10 years old: she was placed with prospective adopters from a Voluntary Adoption Agency.

Early Permanence

Adopt South West continues to champion Early Permanence (EP) as a vital pathway to achieving stability for children. This year marks our third consecutive year of achieving one of the highest national rates of EP placements through Foster to Adopt (FfA), despite a slight decrease in the number of FfA placements compared to the previous year.

Nationally, 13.4% of children placed for adoption in England had previously been in an EP placement. In Adopt South West, the figure for the same 12-month period stands at 23.8%. While this represents a reduction from last year, it reflects the growing number of children with plans for FfA and the ongoing challenge of insufficient adopter availability.

To address this, Adopt South West continues to deliver targeted preparation training for all prospective adopters, with an ‘opt-out’ approach to Foster to Adopt. Strengthening awareness and understanding of EP among prospective carers remains central to improving placement sufficiency and achieving timely, stable outcomes for children.

Local authority engagement is also critical. This year, all five of our partner authorities participated in a regional peer review exercise led by Adopt South West and aligned with the National Early Permanence Standards. The review aimed to share best practice and enhance consistency across the region. Findings highlighted strengths in meeting the core purposes of the standards, with areas for improvement focused on quality and consistency rather than compliance gaps.

A regional development plan is now in place, led by the Adopt South West EP team manager, bringing together EP leads from each local authority to monitor progress and drive practice improvements.

Family finding

The current landscape for family finding remains challenging. An increase in the number of children subject to Placement Orders, coupled with a decline in adopter availability both regionally and nationally, has placed significant pressure on the system.

As a result, identifying suitable families in a timely manner has become increasingly difficult, particularly for children with more complex needs, older children, and sibling groups. This environment demands a more innovative, collaborative, and child-focused approach to ensure that every child has the opportunity to be matched with a family that can meet their needs.

Timeliness

In family finding, we focus on two important measures to track how quickly and effectively we find adoptive families for children:

• A2 indicator: This shows the average time it takes from when the court gives us permission to place a child for adoption to when we match them with a family.
• A10 indicator: This shows the average time from when a child comes into care to when they move in with their adoptive family. It takes into account cases where children are adopted by their foster carers, which are usually quicker.

These two indicators help us understand how well we are doing in finding the right families and making sure children don’t wait too long for a permanent home.

(Coram-i ASG 24/25 data) for 2024 to 2025

Cornwall were not part of Adopt South West in 2023 to 2024, however inclusion of the national data has been made for both A2 and A10 with an average calculation for comparison purposes.

Family finding activities

Finding families is made possible through the dedication and tenacity of our family finding team, who continue to build on their innovative and supportive approach year after year. Their work is rooted in strong partnerships, requiring close collaboration with children’s social workers and foster carers to ensure each child’s needs are fully understood and met.

We have focused on beginning family finding as early as possible in the child’s journey, working together with our five local authorities to track progress closely to avoid delays and ensure timely decisions. We have also focussed on high quality profiling, with family finders ensuring that there are detailed, honest, and engaging profiles of children to help adopters connect meaningfully.

Our regional summary of feedback through the Adoption UK Adoption Barometer told us that once matched to a child or children, 75% of prospective adopters considered introductions were handled well and ran smoothly.

• “We felt supported by our child’s social worker and ASW.”
• “Communication was smooth and consistent, and the family finders did not keep me hanging around.”
• “Family finding was hard and stressful.”

Prospective adopters’ fed back to us the importance of having all information about a child to support their decisions and their preparation to care for a child.

Child Appreciation Days

Adopt South West continue to support Child Appreciation Days as part of our process to share more in-depth information for those children where there is the need, especially for sibling groups.

We know these events are valued from the feedback received:

• “The day was really helpful, especially the information from the school and family practitioner as it gave a real sense of the experience in the home. Although it was really hard to hear what the children had been through it gave and understanding for us.”
• “The information from the family practitioner has been really insightful… The information from the school was also helpful.”
• “Thank you for your invaluable feed in for our future, we now have more complete details of their life to date.”

Activity Play Days

Activity play days remain a popular and positive way to bring together children and prospective adopters throughout the year. These events offer a relaxed and engaging environment where meaningful connections can begin to form.

The primary aim of these events is to create a fun, child-friendly space where children can enjoy themselves while naturally engaging with potential adoptive families. This informal setting helps foster early bonds and supports the matching process in a gentle and respectful way.

Where appropriate, adopters from other adoption agencies are also invited, particularly when they are considering one of our regional children. Children attend with their foster families and have the opportunity to play, explore, and interact with adopters and other children in care.

We held six play days this year which a total of 59 children attended. This is a marked increase on last year and reflects the increased number of children with Placement Orders. Attendance remained consistent, with an average of 10 to 12 children at a play day. A notable number of sibling groups were included, particularly in March’s themed sibling event.

As a result of coming together at these events 2 sibling groups of 2 children and 4 individual children have been matched and gone on to be placed with their adoptive families.

Feedback across the year has been consistently positive, with adopters and foster carers praising the organisation, atmosphere, and child-centred nature of the play days. Most events received scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from attending adopters. The venues were described as “very relaxed”, “well set up for babies and children of all ages”, and “conducive to meaningful conversations” between adopters, foster carers, and staff. Play-based activities were well received and a favourite activity highlighted was cake decorating.

We have plans to review our feedback forms following suggestions from those who have attended to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.

What children had to say

Our children gave the sessions 9 out of 10 – one little one just was not sure!

• “I liked the building blocks best – and the snacks!”
• “We liked the sticking and playing skittles – oh and rolling in the tunnel.”
• “I liked playing with the dolls and dressing up.”

Following on from the children’s feedback we need to provide skipping ropes, books and hula hoops at future play days.

What prospective adopters had to say

Prospective adopters gave the sessions 10 out of 10.

• “Meeting everyone, interacting with the children and talking to foster carers getting to know children’s likes and dislikes.”
• “Ability to mix and interact with all of the children.”
• “Great set up easy to join in with the activities without being too intimidating and awkward.”
• “Fantastic range of activities, very comfortable and relaxed, well supported by ASW and Foster Carers, reaffirming of the profile details.”

What foster carers had to say

• “Great space and lots of toys to play with.”
• “Children were able to play and have fun.”

Following on from feedback we are reviewing how to balance the time for conversations with foster carers and still be able to play with all the children.

We are also considering how we can make the days more easily geographically accessible.

South West Permanence Project for children with disabilities

The South West Permanence Project aims to provide the best possible permanency opportunity and increase aspirations of permanence for children with disabilities. It was set up in July 2023 by Adopt South West, Adoption West and Aspire, covering the wider south west region. Adoption England has extended the project funding until September 2026.

We have children actively part of the project, with more than 20 identified as meeting the criteria for referral. Enhanced family finding activity is central moving forward. The project also continues to focus on influencing adopter training and creating materials to support training for all adopters across the region. The aim is that prospective adopters will feel more confident to explore the idea of adopting a child or children with disabilities.

Adopters

Recruit a range of adopters to meet the needs of children with plans for adoption, offering diversity and focus on meeting the needs of priority group children, including siblings and children with additional health needs/disabilities.

Outcome in Adopt South West Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027

Adopter approvals

In the 2024 to 2025 year, adopter approvals increased to 92, representing a 27% rise compared to 2023 to 2024. This growth is largely attributed to Cornwall joining Adopt South West, which expanded the pool of prospective adopters. A modest increase in approvals was also seen across our other four regions.

While attendance at information events remained consistent, overall enquiries declined by 2%, resulting in a 3% reduction in adoption applications. This trend mirrors national patterns: according to Coram-i ASG 2024–25 end-of-year data, adopter registrations decreased by 0.6%, while approvals saw a slight increase of 0.5%.

Despite the rise in approvals, the number of children with Placement Orders has also increased, widening the gap between children needing families and available adopters. This year, the shortfall grew to 43%, up from 27% the previous year.

We recognise that the adoption journey can take time, and there is often a delay between initial interest and application. Individuals may need space to reflect, gather information, and prepare before moving forward. As such, the impact of recruitment campaigns may not be immediately reflected in application and approval figures. We remain committed to maintaining a visible and accessible presence in our communities, ensuring that those considering adoption feel supported and informed throughout their journey.

Prospective adopter assessments

We are proud to have a stable and experienced team of social workers and team managers within our Recruitment and Assessment service. Our dedicated Stage 1 social workers continue to focus on informing prospective adopters about the children waiting for adoption, encouraging them to reflect on the needs of these children and how they might be supported.

Stage 1 involves a range of checks and references which can present challenges in receiving timely responses. We have made targeted efforts to improve these response times. This has increased the number of Stage 1 completions within the expected timeframe to 22%. This is an increase of 3% on last year’s timeliness, and is now just 3% below the England average (Coram-i ASG 2024/25 data).

We remain committed to improving our efficiency while maintaining a thorough and supportive approach, ensuring prospective adopters feel well-informed and prepared from the outset. We will continue improving follow-up processes with referees and external agencies to reduce delays in receiving checks and references and monitor progress and flag outstanding items sooner. Alongside this we will continue to provide clear expectations and detailed guidance to prospective adopters about what is required and how they can help ensure timely completion.

As part of our continued alignment with Cornwall’s practice, we introduced changes to our assessment approach. These were brought together during a dedicated staff training day. The session focused on enhancing social worker analysis and emphasising the critical role of support networks in adopters and children’s lives. We recognise that the availability of family and friends is essential to the long-term support for any family. To embed this into practice, we have implemented family and friend meetings as a core part of the Stage 2 assessment. These meetings bring everyone together to explore the needs of adopted children, the support family and friends can offer, and the importance of open and honest communication. Feedback from assessing social workers has been overwhelmingly positive. Family and friends are using this time to ask thoughtful questions and often comment on how much more confident and informed they feel about the realities of adoption and their role in supporting the child and adopters.

In line with the Adopt South West strategy, we have continued to offer opportunities for birth parents to share their experiences with prospective adopters as part of our preparation training. This initiative helps deepen adopters’ understanding of the adoption journey from multiple perspectives and encourages empathy, reflection, and open-mindedness.

This year, we’ve seen increased engagement from birth parents, including a birth father who bravely shared his story. His contribution raised thought-provoking issues and offered valuable insight into the emotional complexities of adoption, helping prospective adopters reflect on the importance of identity, keeping in touch (contact), and compassion.

We remain committed to amplifying birth parent voices in a respectful and supported way, recognising the powerful role their stories play in shaping informed and emotionally attuned adopters.

What adopters had to say

Our regional summary of feedback through Adoption UK Adoption Barometer told us that 80% of adoptive parents considered they had been prepared well in the approval process.

• “Learnt a lot from the process, hearing from the birth parent was very enlightening… This was a great opportunity for a unique type of reflection.”
• “Just to re-iterate how much of a difference having a great social worker made, I can’t imagine what it would be like with a social worker who was not as responsive and kind.”
• “I was guided through and felt like I was properly prepared and had my expectations managed.”
• “One of the most emotionally powerful moments of the workshop was hearing from the birth mother. Her perspective highlighted just how important contact can be—not just for the children but also for birth parents, who may still deeply care for their child despite the circumstances.”
• “A real highlight for us was the session with the adopter, whose experiences as a gay parent were both inspiring and affirming. His story helped make adoption feel more tangible and relatable, allowing us to visualise what life as adoptive parents could really look like. He provided valuable insight into the challenges and rewards of adoption, and hearing his story made the prospect feel much more real.”
• “Overall my experience was extremely positive and I would not be deterred from doing it again. I would highly recommend to anyone considering adopting.”

Adoption Panels

[link to Adopt South West Panel Chair report 2024 to 2025]

Regional adoption panels continue to be held virtually and there have been six or seven panels taking place each month.

There have been 70 panels held in the 2024 to 2025 year, with 90 adopter approvals being presented to panel. Of these approvals we saw 15 second time adopters, 1 third time adopters and 2 fourth time adopters. Within the 90 adopter approvals, 13 were single adopters, all of whom were women.

There were 116 matches presented to panel, 32 of these children were part of a sibling group. 51 matches presented to panel were children originally placed Foster for Adoption, of which 4 were sibling groups of two.

There were 4 foster carer adopter approvals, and 3 connected carer adopter approvals presented.

There are currently 33 adoption panel members on the central list. There have been 3 resignations during the 2024 to 2025 year with 8 new panel members recruited.

We have created a panel advisor post to support the increase in panel work generated with the additional local authority joining the RAA.

Panel advisers, alongside the panel chairs, have reviewed and updated the recruitment process with planned recruitment taking place twice a year. The response to the recent recruitment of new panel members and a chair has been positive, both in terms of numbers applying and the range of skills.

Priorities for the 2025 to 2026 year

• Continue to develop work on identifying themes from feedback, and panel appraisals, to inform future learning events.
• Implement the agreed system of Panel Chairs meeting with Local Authority Agency Decision Makers (ADMs). This will be two meetings a year: one with an ADM from each of the Local Authorities and panel chairs as a group and a second meeting for Local Authority ADMs with a link panel chair.
• Share and scrutinise feedback from panel attendees to build good practice.
• Implement the new system of a themed-based approach to panel questions including training for panel members.
• Continue to develop a consistent approach to both medical and legal advice across the five Local Authorities, building on the progress made during the year.
• Build a learning environment for panel chairs and panel members, including learning from children’s transitions ending with no placement, panel recommendations not upheld by ADMs and prospective adopters resigning or being deregistered.

Feedback received from those attending panel, particularly prospective adopters, continues to be positive.

• “We felt a real welcoming atmosphere, we were given enough time to really explain things and put our thoughts and feelings across. We felt more than comfortable to show our emotions and were supported through this.”
• “The introductions, the pace and information on the panel process contributed greatly to making us feel comfortable.”
• “The Chair was extremely welcoming and attempted to put us at our ease throughout the meeting. All panel members smiled and were positive when introducing themselves. It felt like all were interested in what we had to say.”
• “Time was taken to inform me about the process for panel so I knew what to expect.”
• “All the members on the panel were exceptional and immediately made me feel like I was among kind professionals. I was very nervous and they clearly understood and helped me relax so I was able to answer all their questions fully.”

Non-agency adoptions

Adopt South West continues to process enquiries regarding partner adoptions, where applicants submit their notice of intention to adopt, and our social worker completes the required checks, references, and court report. Our Partner Adoption readiness checker on our website supports people to find out about their eligibility for partner adoption.

Adoption orders for partner adoptions have increased for the second year running.

This year, we undertook a further review and revision of our process and practice in relation to partner adoptions. A key change has been the emphasis on applicants submitting their adoption order application before social worker involvement. Previously, social workers often supported families in completing the application, which placed additional demands on their time. This revised approach has helped free up social worker capacity, allowing them to focus on core assessment and support responsibilities.

What prospective partner adopters had to say

• “The adoption information session was highly beneficial. It provided comprehensive details about the adoption process, addressing key topics such as legal requirements, necessary documentation, and available support services.”
• “The information session was very good and provided us with a good understanding of the process.”
• “Very helpful as it was more targeted towards our specific circumstances.”

Marketing and recruitment in the Adopt South West region

Adopt South West places a strong emphasis on the concept of time and the pressing need to find families for the children who are waiting for permanence. By using the voice of the child, we aim to help our audience step into their shoes: highlighting the hopes, strengths, and heartfelt desires of children seeking loving, and committed families.

Our theme is ‘Think Again’. We look to appeal to those who may have previously considered adoption but had decided that it wasn’t the right time. We’re trying to encourage this group to act now, through the tagline ‘now is the time to adopt’ because the longer they wait to decide, the longer these children will have to wait.

During the 2024 to 2025 year, Adopt South West continued to share a wide range of compelling content to raise awareness and build connection. This has included life stories, interviews, and short films featuring adoptive families and members of our adoption team, offering authentic insights into the adoption journey. We’ve also shared national news and resources from trusted organisations such as PAC-UK and Adoption UK, helping to inform and support our community. Our branded content has been actively promoted across key social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube) with links directing audiences to our website for further engagement and information.

We ran an online digital campaign from December 2024 to the end of March 2025, using Meta (Facebook and Instagram). This saw over 8,000 people interacting with our adverts each month, and our Google Ads received over 2,300 clicks.

Adopt South West continues to play a role in shaping the national focus on adoption. Regionally, we act as critical friends to our marketing and communications peers at neighbouring Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs), including Adoption West and Aspire. Together, we amplify the national adoption campaign through coordinated efforts across local media and social media channels. This ensures we contribute to a consistent and unified national voice for adoption.

We actively support and help measure the impact of national campaigns, sharing best practice and exploring innovative approaches to adopter recruitment. While we successfully find families for many children, including those facing high levels of uncertainty, we remain acutely aware that children with disabilities or complex health needs are among those who wait the longest for a permanent family. Across RAAs in the South and West, experiences vary, but traditional recruitment methods continue to identify very few adopters who feel equipped to care for a child with disabilities or life-limiting conditions.

Our marketing focus for the 2025 to 2026 year will be to map our region’s diverse communities and reach individuals with relevant work or life experience, particularly those who have previously supported children with additional health needs or disabilities. By doing so, we aim to broaden our recruitment approach and find more families who can offer the love, care, and stability these children deserve.

News and media exposure throughout the 2024 to 2025 year was supported by our  news section of our website. 

An overview of our activities and news in 2024 to 2025

We attended community events, such as Exeter Respect Festival and the many Pride events across our region, including extending our visibility at events in Cornwall. We will continue to attend as many Pride events as possible in 2025 and will join Fostering Devon at the Devon County Show 2025.

During July 2024  we were part of a national ‘You Can Adopt’ campaign, called ‘The Journey’, to inspire more people to take the first step towards growing their family. This included a new film showing that like any family ‘road trip’, adoption is a journey full of challenges, chaos, conversation, and love. The campaign saw a series of new films released featuring real life stories from those who have adopted children, and others who have been adopted themselves.

The national campaign echoes our Adopt South West campaign sentiment: that there isn’t a ‘perfect’ time to start a family. For a child in need of adoption, the perfect time is now. Adoption is a life-long journey. Watch our short films which follows six families reflecting on the ups and downs of their family journeys and adoptive family life.

In October 2024  we celebrated National Adoption Week (21 October to 27 October 2024) highlighting adoption journeys of all kinds, showcasing the experiences within modern adoptive family life. As part of The Journey campaign, a new short film, set onboard a train, follows the stories of three adoptive families on their travels. Just like adoption, trains connect people to one another and act as a fitting metaphor for the adoption journey – one that is full of adventure, chaos, and love.  It features the people who have played a role: from social workers and birth families, to foster carers and grandparents.  

The campaign raised awareness of modern adoption and showcased the diversity of adoptive families today, showing that the journey to a family is not always a traditional one. 

In March 2025 we supported LGBTQ+ Adoption and Fostering Week 2025. The ‘Change Lives in ‘25’  campaign focuses on the impact that adoption and fostering will bring to the lives of the parents/carers and the children involved. Throughout the week, members of the LGBTQ+ community and people from global majority are sharing their stories and personal clips about their journeys to parenting and caring. We shared New Family Social’s collateral to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ adoption and promoted our events on their website and socials.

Adoption support

Deliver timely adoption support for children which is responsive to current need, focused on intervention based approach.

Outcome in Adopt South West Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027

Adoption support referrals

There has been a sustained increase in the need for adoption support across our region. This year, we continued to experience a notable rise in referrals, driven in part by the expansion of the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) following Cornwall’s inclusion. This growth also reflects a broader and increasing need for services that support adoptive families, birth parents and adopted adults.

Adopt South West delivers a range of support services designed to meet the diverse needs of children, young people, families, and those whose lives are shaped by adoption.

Our structured and coordinated approach ensures tailored support across varying levels of need.

Key services include:

• Duty Support Line: offering timely advice and guidance to families and professionals. referral form on our website.
• Assessment of Need: conducted through our triage and locality teams to identify appropriate support pathways.
• Direct Support: engaging with children, young people, and their families through one-to-one interventions, group work, and social events.
• Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund: Managing access to therapeutic services and interventions.
• Keeping in Touch Services: facilitating letterbox and direct contact arrangements to maintain important family connections.
• Support for Birth Families: providing emotional and practical assistance to birth parents and relatives.
• Access to Records: assisting adopted adults in retrieving and understanding their adoption records.

Through these services, Adopt South West remains committed to promoting stability, wellbeing, and lifelong connections for all those impacted by adoption. In line with our strategy we have taken time this year to focus on our adoption support services in order to develop our processes and practice.

We recognised the need to improve the timeliness of our assessments, and the introduction of the triage service has started to deliver the positive impact we anticipated. A review of our assessment work from October to December 2024 shows a 40% reduction in the time taken to complete triage assessments, marking a significant step forward in our efforts to enhance efficiency and responsiveness.

In addition we committed time and training to further improve our assessments, ensuring that we focus on hearing from the child or young person, that we understand the family and friends support network around the family and that we give focus to analysing information.

The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF)

Adopt South West continues to actively support adoptive families in accessing essential therapeutic services through the Adoption Support Fund (ASFSF). We remain committed to streamlining our internal processes to respond effectively to national changes in the fund’s administration, enabling more timely and efficient access to support.

Between April 2024 and March 2025, Adopt South West submitted 944 successful applications to the ASGSF. This is an increase from 712 in the 2023 to 2024 year and 797 in the 2022 to2023 year. This upward trend reflects our sustained dedication to assessing family needs and securing funding to deliver vital therapeutic interventions.

The average spend per application rose to £3,810.86, up from £2,336.83 the previous year. In total, in the 2024 to 2025 year, we accessed £3,597,453.49 in therapeutic support funding for families across the region. This is an exceptional increase from £293,740.80 in the 2023 to 2024 year.

There was a delay in the announcement of the Adoption Support Fund (ASGSF) for the 2025 to 2026 financial year which impacted on our ability to submit applications for therapeutic services due to begin in April 2025. As a result, applications could not be made during Q4 of this year. Following the announcement in April 2025 confirming a reduction in the Fair Access Limit, significant reworking of pre-prepared applications was required. This complex task relied heavily on close collaboration between our staff, providers and our adopters.

We were appreciative for our staff commitment and hard work in progressing the work needed, the support and engagement of providers to rework applications and most importantly for the patience and understanding of our adoptive families who were affected.

Engagement, training and therapeutic support

Adopt South West offers a programme of engagement and support activities for adoptive families across the region. These are designed to foster connection, build resilience, and provide access to support resources.

Family engagement

We deliver a monthly newsletter, regular activity events for children and families, and host an annual conference to bring our community together. Every month we send an informative detailed newsletter to over a thousand (1,109) adoptive families. Content is provided through a newsletter steering group with adoptive parents and members of the team. It details news, events, post-adoption support workshops and training. A version of the March 2024 newsletter can be found here.  We also regularly send adoption information and event alerts to over 3,000 potential adopters and members of the public.

Digital support

Families have access to the Children and Trauma Community Hub (CATCH), hosted by Parents and Children Together (PACT). This online platform offers live web chat, email support, an adopter forum, webinars, and e-learning modules covering topics such as attachment and educational strategies for adopted children.

Support groups

A wide range of groups are available both virtually and in person, including:

• An adopter-led Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) support group
• A monthly virtual group co-facilitated by a psychologist and an adoptive parent
• Regional ‘stay and play’ style groups facilitated by adopters
• Birth parent support groups

Training opportunities

Following a brief assessment, adopters can access specialist training courses, including: Therapeutic parenting, Sensory regulation, Theraplay, Mindfulness, Managing child-to-parent violence (eight-week programme). While some groups remain virtual, others – such as therapeutic parenting – are offered both online and face-to-face to ensure accessibility and flexibility.

What our adopters have said about our support

Our regional summary of feedback through Adoption UK Adoption Barometer told us that 78% of adopters were satisfied with the quality of core adoption services and 45% were satisfied with the enhanced adoption support.

“It was great to feel listened to about our daughter’s needs and how we can best support her. The sensory integration therapy has had such a significant positive impact on our daughter and family life, and we wouldn’t have known about this without our worker. What we found really helpful was that the process was led by us and the need for us as parents to be proactive and access the support.”

“We don’t think the agency could have done anything more to support us. We are grateful for access to the adoption support fund to help provide the therapeutic intervention and while we understand the limit has changed, should there be a need to access further therapies, we are committed to supporting our daughter now and in the future and the knowledge of our worker helped us understand what we may need to do.”

“You really couldn’t have done a better job and we mean that so much – exemplary! You guys should be so proud of yourselves for the excellent service you provide to your children and parents. We cannot ever thank you enough – from the bottom of our hearts from us and the boys.”

Peer mentoring: peer connections

Every adoptive parent brings a unique and valuable perspective shaped by their own lived experience. This insight enables them to offer meaningful support and encouragement to others navigating the adoption journey. We recognise the profound impact of peer connection: there’s nothing quite like speaking with someone who truly understands. While peer support is not a replacement for professional advice, it plays a vital role in offering reassurance, sharing practical strategies, and signposting helpful services and resources.

Our peer mentoring support was introduced in September 2024 with the focus for adopters at the early stage of a child moving into their family. These mentor relationships provide adoptive parents with fresh perspectives and a sense of community as they begin their parenting journey.

Currently we have six mentors who are willing to share their time and experience. Their work is supported by an Adopt South West family practitioner, who brings expertise in sustaining effective peer mentoring relationships.

The service continues to evolve, and we are taking time to reflect on how it’s working in practice. Feedback from both mentors and mentees is being carefully reviewed to help us refine the approach, strengthen the support offered, and ensure the programme remains responsive to the needs of adoptive families and the potential for extension to reach even more adopters.

What our mentors and mentees have said

• “In all, I have really enjoyed meeting my mentees and trying to think of ways that could help with the few issues they were having. However, they seem very committed to the kids they adopted and are doing their best, with their family’s support, to love and care for their children.”
• “Think it would be better to be matched with a mentee way before they have a child placed, as for us, we didn’t have enough time to build a good relationship before my mentee had a child placed with them.”
• “We have found the mentoring scheme really supportive and feel that it has really helped us. We feel a lot of it comes down to who you are matched with, in our case we both really get on with our mentor and therefore have been able to be very open with her, asking for advice and being able to voice anything we have found difficult. The catch ups with her feel very informal, we have talked about everything and anything, sometimes it’s just normal parental things, other times it’s more adoption specific.”
• “At the start of the mentoring process it felt like a lot trying to make time for the meetings to set everything up, balancing life with a new toddler at home and dealing with our emotions. Our only feedback on that would be a little more structure and time given to set things up, but we also appreciate that it was new to everyone at that time.”

Maintaining relationships

All adopted children and young people are supported to maintain significant relationships with those important to them, having a clear understanding of their adoption journey.

Outcome in Adopt South West Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027

In alignment with our strategic priorities, we have taken significant steps this year to reflect, review, and refocus our efforts on supporting lifelong relationships. This includes a renewed commitment to:

• Enhancing the Maintaining Relationships services
• Supporting birth families
• Engaging with adopted adults.

As part of this work, we are developing our Adoption Support Service to better meet evolving needs. We are preparing to implement a dedicated team focused specifically on these areas. These developments reflect our belief that adoption is a lifelong journey, and that every stage deserves thoughtful, compassionate support.

We have progressed with our comprehensive review of our Adoption Support services. As part of this process, we are making plans to strengthen it by:

• Running a full review of all support groups facilitated by Adopt South West
• Promoting direct time with birth family members
• Regular reviews of keeping in touch (contact) arrangements
• Moving away from the practice of view-only photos
• Supporting writing more information in letters to give more about a child or young person’s personality
• Introduction and promotion of the Safer and Meaningful Contact Risk Assessment Model to support decision-making across Local Authorities: we have provided training for staff in Adopt South West and committed to the train-the-trainer model to support sustainability.

Understanding their life story is essential for children’s emotional wellbeing and sense of identity. When it’s safe, maintaining some level of contact with birth relatives can help adopted children connect with their background. Creating a flexible plan that evolves with the child’s needs can support their self-understanding and contribute to a stronger, healthier sense of identity as they grow.

We are aware of the need to consider changes which will support us in adapting and developing the Maintaining Relationships Service. Our aim is to become more efficient and provide space for the development of a modernised and responsive service.

As part of the revision of maintaining relationships, Adopt South West completed a review of all letters and cards received, read and checked as part of our ‘letterbox’ service. The review covered the period from July 2024 to October 2024. The findings were that of the 1,460 pieces of correspondence read and checked by Adopt South West staff, 39 were amended or redacted. This amounts to 2.67%.

Within Adopt South West, we firmly believe that parents are the experts in their own families, and they know and understand their children’s needs far better than any professional could ever hope to. As such, we feel that adoptive parents are far better placed to receive the correspondence from birth families, read these and make the decision as to whether the letters are appropriate and will support their child’s well-being now or whether to store them for the future. Adopt South West will therefore be changing the practice of reading correspondence before it is sent on to adopters as of 1 April 2025.

Adopt South West coordinated 12,849 exchanges between birth and adoptive families throughout the year. These contacts were for a total of 3,067 children, 2,202 adopters and 4,151 birth relatives.

We remain committed to supporting face-to-face or direct contact when it is in the best interests of the child or young person. It can play a vital role in helping children navigate issues of identity and loss, while also supporting them in managing the complex emotions tied to their connections with both birth and adoptive families.

This year we have supported direct contact arrangements for over 38 children across the region, involving various birth family members, including siblings. Beyond these formal arrangements, we are pleased to see that some adopters have built positive relationships with birth relatives, with meetings naturally becoming part of their regular family life.

Our regional summary of feedback through Adoption UK Adoption Barometer told us that 56% of adopters considered the agency manages arrangements for direct and indirect contact effectively.

We have had feedback from adopters who met the birth mum again after a few years. The adopters are planning to see the birth mum again at the end of the year face to face. In time the plan is for the birth mum to have direct contact with their daughter.

• “Thank you very much for today, we found it a really positive meeting and a privilege to get to meet birth Mum and start to get to know more about her in person.”

We also received feedback after birth grandparents came together with their grandchild’s adopters. The adopters fed back:

• “Thanks again for arranging a successful meet, we thought that you managed that visit so well and we really appreciated you being there. I think it could of gone on forever otherwise! The grandparents thanked everyone for a wonderful day – child ran up to grandparents and gave them a big hug and enjoyed being able to play together.”

Such positive experiences of face-to-face contact means positive changes to the relationships being built.

• From adoptive parents: “We would like to increase direct contact to twice a year a year to include Christmas time as it has gone so well”.
• From birth mum: “I am over the moon at this idea and feel very lucky and happy that there is support for the children to see me.”

Birth families support

Birth families and the adoption process

We value supporting birth families, recognising the vital role they play in the lives of their adopted children. Across the region, we facilitate four birth parent support groups. These are shaped by the input of birth parents themselves who help determine both the agendas and whether meetings are held virtually or in person.

Currently, these groups are attended exclusively by birth mothers. However, we are committed to actively working on exploring and building support groups for birth fathers.

One birth parent from our southern support group remains actively involved in the National Adoption Reference Group. This group advises the National Adoption Recruitment Steering Group and contributes to efforts around recruiting and preparing prospective adoptive parents.

We also continue to support adopters and adopted children and young people to maintain connections with their birth families. This is often facilitated through adult-to-adult communication mediated by Adopt South West. The letterbox service, in particular, plays a crucial role in helping children and young people make sense of their life story.

Adopted adults

We are seeing a continued rise in the number of adopted adults requesting access to their birth records, with a noticeable increase in younger adults reaching out to make contact.

This year we have worked to respond to feedback we have received from adults who have sought support to access their birth records. We are aware that better services are needed to support adopted adults. We acknowledge the Improving Adoption Support for Adults project which is being progressed in partnership with the University of East Anglia and PAC UK to help adopted people maintain relationships and access better support. We are committed to these improvements and have staff from our Maintaining Relationships team involved in the national work through Adoption England.

Our work with adopted adults will be held within our Maintaining Relationships team. The team manager will take a lead role in improving how we work with the relevant services within our local authorities to improve practice and timeliness.

We have been able to share the direct experience of some of our adopted adults with our Operational and Strategic boards. The outcome was that there will be commitment to a regional strategy to improve access to records and the support available formalised in the 2025 to 2026 year.

Adopt South West Conference October 2024

Our 2023 conference focused on the importance of maintaining relationships, so for 2024 we wanted to give gravitas to the importance of Therapeutic Life Story Work as an intervention for children, young people and adults. We know that maintaining relationships and therapeutic life story work will support a child to understand their personal journey.

We were excited to be joined for the conference by Richard Rose who shared the Richard Rose Model of Therapeutic Life Story Work. This is the first model subjected to independent research and has been validated as an evidence-based narrative model with excellent outcomes for traumatised children, young people and adults.

The conference started with setting the scene for what Therapeutic Life Story Work is, and the positive impact it has on children’s and young people’s lives. We then looked at the different levels within Therapeutic Life Story Work. Firstly ‘All About Me’, which is a tool for parents and carers to use with any aged child or young person to support them to be able to express their present life experiences, their understanding of past events and their hopes and aspirations for the future. Then we explored the Therapeutic Life Story Work model which uses creative, therapeutic interventions with children, young people and adults to help them work through and resolve past traumas and loss. Through these interventions bonds are strengthened and the individual is enabled to consider the future with a greater sense of self (Rose 2012).

At the end of the conference, we heard from a truly inspiring young person about his positive experience of Therapeutic Life Story Work and the impact that it has had on his life.

We held the 2024 conference virtually and 179 people attended, with representation from adopters, Adopt South West and local authority staff, and other professionals.

What adopters said

• “To start to embed actual ‘therapeutic’ life story work with our adoptive children and not just life story work! It’s also been so helpful to solidify my knowledge as a social worker working with adults as much of the work we need to do with adults is just this (and I’m not just talking about adopted adults / care experienced!). Being trauma informed is one thing but having the skills and knowledge to support people to live alongside those feelings is another! Just brilliant! Thank you.”
• “Involve my child in the co-creation of his own life story once he is older. I will also consider using some sessions with specialists, as discussed in the conference.”
• ”How therapeutic LSW will be beneficial for us going forward. In the meantime how to introduce all about me books and the story telling starters like drawing around a hand.”

What professionals said

• “The importance of being open with children about their experiences, as I deliver the stage 2 training and undertake assessments, it’s a message that I can take forward into both these areas of work.”
• “Inspiration tools and ideas and that this could be really helpful for children I am working with despite them having a lot of other challenges I am keen to train in TLSW.”
• “Examples from life story work and the wall paper have been so useful to hear in in action. If working with a child one-to-one I would use bits I’ve taken from today even if not life story work.”

Social events

We place great value on the feedback we receive from children, young people, and families who attend our organised events. Their insights help us understand what works well and where we can improve.

Throughout the 2024 to 2025 year, we’ve gathered a range of views that reflect the experiences of those who participated. These voices are helping to shape our future planning, and we are committed to developing our events in the coming year with this feedback at the heart of our approach.

April 2024 Equus Somerset

This is a family-run equestrian yard in a peaceful rural location surrounded by open fields and wildlife.

What our families had to say:

• “Outdoorsy wholesome fun. Animals to see and indoor quieter option such as colouring whilst the kids ‘warm up’. A safe setting where the children could run around and make a mess in muddy puddles and piles of hay. Great value day out.”
• “Relaxed atmosphere, supportive staff and horses.”

Easter walk and scavenger hunt

• “A relaxed walk. Our children really enjoyed it despite their age differences.”
• “My son was able to run and get (very!) muddy whilst my daughter could pretend to be grown up and walk with the adults! A special thank you to Alice who managed to strike up a good conversation with my daughter, not something I’ve ever seen with an adult she doesn’t know!”
• “I liked the eggs!”
• “I liked being muddy!”

Summer Fun activity days

At our Summer Family Activity Day we had fun in the sun, with Children’s World coming along to do some activities with us: wand making, friendship bracelets and jewellery bead making, flower crowns, t-shirt designing, face-painting, hair chalk colours, pizza making, fruit kebabs, hula hooping, parachute football, and bubbles. We had a fabulous picnic and not forgetting the cakes and ice-cream.

October 2024 – Circus Party – Devon

• “Elfic performed lots of fantastic circus tricks and skills to entertain both children and adults. After his performance the children were able to enjoy trying out some of the circus tricks and learning new skills in the circus workshop.”
• “I loved the colouring table and having fun doing the circus activities.”
• “Elfic the juggler’s show was very entertaining for our 4-year-old, & she enjoyed having a go of the equipment too. Thank you also for having vegan snacks – it helped her feel included & not “”missing out””. The quiet room was also an enjoyable space & she loved the tents & arts & crafts.”

Christmas party in January at Raze the Roof – Cornwall

Children and families had lots of fun at the soft play and laser tag in January 2025.

Running and Returning project, The Box – Plymouth

We were all very excited to receive an invite for adopted children and families to collaborate with The Box, Plymouth and a brilliant local artist, Jyll Bradley, to create a new artwork in response to her ambitious survey exhibition Running and Returning.

The families worked with artist Beth Emily Richards over six creative workshops to explore the idea of a personal archive, scanning archive images from personal photo albums, and using digital photography, collage and other creative approaches.

One of the participants told us:“This was a different way of seeing your family and being visible”.

The artwork is on display at The Box in Plymouth from 5 April 2025 to 3 November 2025. Responding to ‘Running and Returning’ | The Box Plymouth

Finance

In the 2024 to 2025 financial year, Adopt South West received funding from the five councils it provided adoption services for. The funding formula had been revised in the previous financial year to refresh the data and to reflect Cornwall Council becoming a member of Adopt South West on 1 April 2024.

Adopt South West held no reserves at the beginning of the year. In the 2024 to 2025 financial year, the outturn position for the ASW Operational budget was an underspend of £147,847. This underspend mainly arose due to staff vacancies during the year, reduced post adoption support costs and reduced panel costs. These reductions were partially offset by increased spend on staff travel. However, the most significant underspend was within the inter-agency fees budget which was a further £581,517 under budget.

The net total underspend of £729,364 was returned to the five local councils according to the percentages shown in the table above.

In the 2025 to 2026 financial year, the budget for Adopt South West is £6,801,280. This will be recharged to the partner councils in the following percentages:

The funding formula will be revised over the summer of 2025 for use in the 2026 to 2027 financial year onwards.

Commissioning and procurement

The 12-month period from April 2024 to March 2025 has had a number of challenges for Adopt South West. Firstly, at the beginning of the year Cornwall joined Adopt South West. Most of the preparation work had been done in the previous financial year, which from a commissioning and procurement side had been mainly ensuring that we had sufficiency in providers available to support our families in Cornwall. This was successful in the main with existing Cornish providers engaging well and existing (and new) Adopt South West providers expanding to cover Cornwall. This process has also allowed Adopt South West to ensure quality across its new sector and ensure continuity of due diligence across the whole provider market.

The other significant challenge to Adopt South West was the uncertainty towards the end of the year regarding the future of the Adoption Support Fund.

Adopt South West has spent many years developing a very close and partnership style working relationship with its commissioned providers. This has enabled them to manage both these challenges in a positive way and limit the impacts on families as much as possible. Because of these good working relationships, providers have worked collaboratively with Adopt South West sometimes to their own disadvantage to achieve better outcomes and manage the external challenges to the service.

Whilst this has developed a good partnership approach, systems and processes within the commissioning, procurement and finance remain robust and continue to develop to accommodate the changing challenges. We are also working with the service to improve areas like safeguarding and the value of reports and assessments.

The processes under the purchasing arrangement for expressions of interest and referrals is continuously developed, meaning that the whole service continues to improve and become even more successful.

All of the above is helping Adopt South West to continuously develop and improve the support we are able to provide to our adoptive families.

National work

The National Adoption Team, Adoption England, provides a platform for Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) leaders to collaborate in shaping and enhancing practice. This joint effort supports the delivery of better outcomes for children and families, aligning with the government’s national adoption strategy: Achieving Excellence Everywhere.

In addition to the Adopt South West’s leaders’ involvement with Adoption England, we continue to be supportive of our staff’s engagement in national work and projects.

Adoption England | Regional Adoption Agencies

Reflecting on a year of progress and collaboration

This year, we celebrate the growth and improvements that have strengthened our adoption services.

Cornwall is now fully integrated within the Regional Adoption Agency, marking a milestone in our journey of collaboration and shared learning. The continued improvements in practice across Adopt South West, particularly the successful launch of the family and friends network meetings, demonstrate the power of working together to strengthen support for adoptive families.

We also celebrate the approval of 92 new prospective adoptive households. This achievement is a testament to the dedication and skill of our assessing social workers, whose ability to build meaningful relationships and deliver quality assessments has been vital in supporting successful family finding.

Family finding remains a challenge in the current climate, with fewer prospective adopters and more children with adoption plans. We placed 132 children in the year to 31 March 2025 and our family finding team continues to rise to the occasion. Their creativity, adaptability, and unwavering commitment ensure that the information shared about our children shouts out their unique personalities and who they truly are.

Our quality assurance and panel team have continued to support the work of both Adopt South West and our five local authorities ensuring the efficiency of adoption panels and supporting our panel chairs and members in the role they play in the process of approvals, matches and quality assurance.

We’ve also begun a review of our Adoption Support service, and the response from our teams has been a testament to their dedication and drive. Recent changes within our management team have brought renewed energy and a clear direction of travel for the service.

We are excited about the plans for our dedicated Maintaining Relationships service and to developing our keeping in touch work.

Across the agency, we’ve placed a strong emphasis on hearing the voices of children and young people. We’ve listened carefully to feedback from adopters, adopted adults, and birth parents, and have begun making meaningful changes in how we deliver our services.

We recognise there is more to do. Our commitment to building an inclusive, responsive, and child-centred agency remains steadfast, and we will continue to work together to achieve it.

Adopt South West Annual Report 2024 to 2025

Prepared by Amanda White, Head of Service

Contributors

• Hannah Clay – Operations Manager
• Lucy Hextall – Operations Manager
• Helen Atkinson – Team Manager
• Vanessa Dove – Adoption Support Team Manager
• Matthew Woolley – Adoption Support Team Manager
• Mairi Hamilton/Liz Halliday – Marketing and Communications
• Andrew Simkin – Procurement
• Paul Carter – Finance